Sometimes It’s Hard to Tell Which Side Is Which

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MOVIE REVIEW
The Boys in Red Hats
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Genre: Documentary
Year Released: 2021 (Cinequest Film Festival), 2022 (Wider release)
Runtime: 1h 27m
Director(s): Jonathan Schroder
Writer(s): Jonathan Schroder
Where To Watch: Available on DVD and digital platforms 5/3

This is a documentary about the controversial encounter on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that took place on January 18, 2019. While I try to remain neutral in my reviews and don’t speak about my politics, I assumed that this would be somewhat of a biased documentary. I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong about something, and I love it for that. At the same time, it was a bit of a roller coaster, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The additional information after the feature proved to be incredibly telling regarding what the truth of the encounter likely was.

The most intriguing part of the documentary is how much of an unknown it was. I expected a specific dialogue, and documentarian Jonathan Schroder proved me wrong. For that alone, I applaud him and this film; it’s a breath of fresh air to have anything even remotely politically related have an unbiased approach.

Schroder has had a pretty impressive career in film and television so far, with this perhaps the culmination of his efforts thus far. He started as a production assistant with Nickelodeon in 1996 and has been busy throughout the following years. With several other credits, this is Schroder’s first feature-length documentary, and I genuinely hope that he continues to make more. It’s terrific to see a documentary attempt to get to the bottom of a story instead of just reporting what one group has already said.

Simply put, the most significant focus of the film is on the media (social media precisely) and their instantaneous response to reporting and reacting to stories before having all the information. In reaching out to citizens of the town that the students from this encounter were from, one simply responded, “You know what, I love my bubble.” As Schroder points out, that, in a nutshell, is one of the biggest problems with our country today. So many are unwilling to look beyond their comfort levels to see what others are going through. This explains what America has been going through for the last several years.

In the end, the film itself goes without a proper conclusion which leaves the decision up to the viewer to make their conclusions. However, after the last frame, there are several additional pieces of information, as I alluded to earlier. I feel that this information is possibly more telling than the film's entirety. We’ll likely never know either party's true intentions, but that proves the problem with anyone jumping to conclusions in a story like this.

Thank you to Bright Iris Film Co., DeskPop Entertainment, and Shark Dog Films.

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